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I don’t want my son to be one of those kids who gets to college and has no idea how to feed himself so I am slowly helping him to learn his way around the kitchen. We have started small (he’s only 10 so we have time) and he can now make scrambled eggs. The rule is I have to be in the kitchen when he does this.

And I also supervised him making single serve mac and cheese. The one that comes in a cup and you add water and microwave, not too difficult (or so I thought). The first few times I supervised but last week-end I was in my office upstairs and he yelled up asking if he could make some. So I said go ahead and kept on working, with one ear open but not really expecting any problems.

“Mom, there is smoke coming out of the microwave!” I hear a small panicked voice yell. The spouse goes down first and I follow expecting to find a dying microwave (it came with the house and I am guessing it is at least 15 years old). Instead it smells like burnt popcorn and my husband holds up a melted plastic cup. Turns out small child forgot to add the water. He will not be appearing on “Kid’s Baking Championship” anytime soon.

Halloween

Frankly the grocery store being full of Halloween candy already really irritates me. Who needs to buy candy two months early? Especially here where it will be all melted by the end of October. Do people fear a dearth of candy? That there won’t be enough for everyone? Seems to me there is plenty of candy in the stores year round.

I was sharing these thoughts with a fellow blogger and had an epiphany. For Halloween this year I can dress up as Mrs. Claus or an Elf and hand out Christmas candy, which I am sure will be quite plentiful in October. Maybe we should put up our Christmas decorations along with Halloween? NOOOOOOOOOOO!

I feel like “The Nightmare Before Christmas” now occurs every year. I want to enjoy each season, each holiday in it’s own time. It is August, still triple digit heat, still swimming, popsicle and shorts weather. I don’t want Halloween being shoved in my face until October.

Dying zinnias do a look a bit autumnal. (no…bad tracey, still summer, at least wait until after Labor Day to start thinking fall thoughts!)

Have a good week (if you want to, no pressure)!

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I have been waffling about what to do with my blog. I know you are supposed to focus on one area, post on a regular schedule, blah blah blah. I have been an orderly rule follower my whole life and now in my dotage I have decided to be capricious. I have decided to post randomly about whatever I so desire. So there, take that world.

We start with a random Monday Joy List…

I am glad I am not really in my dotage!

Books, always. I am currently reading “The Great Alone” by Kristin Hannah. It is not an easy read emotionally, a very dark subject but I have hope for an uplifting ending.

Our pool temperature is still quite warm, about 88° making swimming a pleasure each evening.

Go CUBS Go! I really enjoy listening to the games on the radio and “treat” myself on Sundays to watching the game on tv.

I am learning so much from my on-line writing class. Why didn’t I do this years ago?

My son is going to a new school this year and they got a grant to set up a lunch program and for this year all the kids get to eat for free. Not having to make a lunch everyday…priceless. Apparently there is such a thing as a free lunch. (Of course next year it will probably cost a fortune but I won’t think about that today.)

I reorganized and gave my office a good cleaning. I am spending a lot of time in here these days.

I swapped out my wax scents. Just a little thing but it brings me joy.

I have been buying little bouquets of zinnias at the Farmer’s Market, beautiful colors.

Keep Your Focus!

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My son started school this week and last week we ticked off one more summer bucket list item: make pasta from scratch. Turns out it is harder and more time consuming to make pasta than we imagined. So here are pictures of what a real person’s kitchen looks like while making pasta. (As opposed to say a food blogger who would have glorious photos with nary a stray pile of flour.)

Pasta dough rolled out and waiting to be cut. Notice how it is nowhere near a rectangular shape? Apparently I can only roll out round.

The big picture.

I found a tip on-line that said you can turn all those uneven edge bits into pasta for soup. Done!

Stacks of drying pasta in my momentarily Italian kitchen!

My son ate the bowtie pasta for dinner and we froze the rest. I have a feeling this will be my one and only pasta bucket list item.

Keep Your Focus!

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I am very thankful we went to Yosemite last year. Who knows what the future holds for such a beautiful park in such a fire endangered area. Here are some photos from last year. I tried to include snow and water to help cool things off. Seems it is overly hot in many places. We are running a good 5 to 10 degrees above average these days which is keeping me rather grumpy. I try and swim most evenings after the shade has creeped over the pool and the air temperature is around 104° and the water temperature 92°. I feel like I should just take a bar of soap with me and have a bath after my swim 🙂 . At least the water feels good on my “frozen shoulder”.

A little water.A little snow.A little snow and water.Do you see those crazy people, I mean climbers clinging to Half Dome?

Keep Your Focus!

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I didn’t do an update post for June, nothing much happened that month. We were on vacation the first 10 days and then there was the adjustment to school being out. I did read “10% Happier” by Dan Harris and began to think about how I could use meditation to battle my sugar craving hormones. July has been more productive.

Be Healthier

I did a 10 day sugar detox which has helped me stop snacking.

I am getting much better about eating all my CSA vegetables. Chocolate beet cake counts, right? (Of course it was before the sugar detox!)

I survived a 19 day period and a lot of hot flashes. Combined with triple digit heat and humidity and insane hormonal swings (I cry at everything: The Cubs hit into a double play, tears. Someone bakes a beautiful cake on the Great British Baking show, tears. It is nuts!) survival was something of a miracle.

I am doing a good job of meditating and deep breathing every day.

My frozen shoulder is being difficult. I am still doing my PT almost everyday but I can tell when the hormones are surging because my range of motion decreases and I have more pain.

Be Happier

We went camping for a week in the rainy mountains and I loved the cooler air.

I deactivated my Facebook account. It was a real time suck and didn’t make me feel particularly happy.

I realized I want to spend less time on the computer, took a blogging break and decided to revamp my blog. (Still a work in progress)

Signed up for an 8 week on-line writing course that starts fortuitously the day after school resumes for my son. I hope this makes me happier, right now the thought of it is making me anxious. What if I fail?

Embraced the fact that I like listening to the Cubs on the radio more than watching them on tv. I do coloring and needlepoint or fix dinner while listening to the games on-line.

I bought a new car but kept my beloved Saab. We stumbled on a 2017 Subaru Crosstrek Limited with only 6k miles. Buying it was kind of a no brainer. Icy Metallic Silver is the color, a perfect name in the desert heat.

A bouquet of zinnia’s from the farmer’s market. Such a wonderful variety of colors! Sorry I didn’t take a picture.

I haven’t taken many pictures of her yet, it has been way too hot! Here she is on her first road trip to Willcox.

There you have it, July in a nutshell. I like to think I am a little healthier and a little happier. Yeah me!

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I took a bit of a sabbatical from the blog in July but that doesn’t mean I didn’t take any photos. So without further ado…

4th of July, fireworks on base and red, white and blue glow sticks a big hit.

Camping in the White Mountains, wonderfully cool among the aspens.

This is pretty much what the sky looked like the whole week we were there: patches of blue surrounded by white clouds, dark clouds and rain falling somewhere. The rain wasn’t continuous but it was fairly plentiful. Sadly campfires weren’t allowed which seemed rather silly with all the rain.